Last month I left you with a studio in complete disarray and I am proud to report that I have made a lot of progress in the last 3 weeks. I picked a section at a time and let me tell you I was ruthless! I used boxes for donations, trash, a “Why is this in my room?”, and of course our favorite the ever present UFO’s.
This is the first area that I tackled. This is where I keep album supplies, Traveler’s notebooks, finished projects, pretty much a mish mash of “stuff” If there was no room in the bookcases the floor became additional storage. Here is the result-
This makes me so happy! 1. I promised myself I would display more of my creations here and throughout my home. 2. I have a tendency to start new projects because I love shiny new things, a fresh Traveler’s notebook, starting a new album and not finishing the other four ( well maybe six…) 3. I get bored, toss things aside and figure I will complete the projects later resulting in more UFO’s. I consolidated my notebooks, rearranged layouts and finished a couple of albums. Said no to unfinished projects that do not inspire me. I took apart a few of them to use in other ways and discarded the rest. Took a hard look at my reading material and gave away a number of books and made a some friends very happy.
Beautiful storage with a great work area wasted because I did not have a specific area to place these items, um coffee filters?
The lesson here is I am truly a Ladybug. Fussy micro organizing is not for me. I collected all the colored pencils and kept the best ones for myself, made up a case for my grandkids and donated the rest. I made space in one of the drawers and place them inside. Going forward this is where I will find my pencils and return them when I’m done (in theory anyway).
Don’t we all love a good before and after photo? This was a massive labor of love. I really took a hard look at how I use my supplies, what I use on a regular basis and why do I need to get all the new things when I always go back to my tried and true goodies. I still have some areas that need help but I now enter my space feeling light and ready to create. Molly the American girl doll is keeping a sharp eye on me.
The big take away for me is I need to store all similar products in one spot. I’ll give you an example I literally found rulers in five different places, duplicates? of course-
The plan going forward is to keep a set in my crop bag and the rest in a drawer, not sorted by where or how I use them, but a large category known simply as rulers. Phew! That made me feel so good saying that. My washi tape is in one place not scattered around the room in various jars. The thing about washi tape- it gets stored away, it loses its tackiness or worse it takes you half an hour to tear off six inches of tape. Unfortunately I had to part with a number of rolls that just could not be used. I was going to give some to my grandchildren but realized the rolls would just end up back in my lap cause they needed help so I’m not going to do that to myself or them. All my cardstock is in one place sorted in ROYGBIV order. Paper thin cardstock was placed in the grandkids art cart leaving me with good product I’ll be happy to use.
I will continue to sort through my supplies but I’m going to take a break from this heavy lifting. The month of March brings us Calvinball and I’m attending a crop the first weekend of the month. I am challenging myself to go on a spending freeze for the entire month! Can it be done? I cleaned up the mess in most of my studio so I think so, stay tuned for the results-
